Adwoa und Ama

Happy Birthday, Michael!!

And happy Father’s Day to all dads!

In honor of the auspicious coincidence of these two milestones being celebrated on the same day, we went camping! We were booked for two nights, but decided to come home yesterday for two reasons– 1) sleep (the girls starting the week off sleep deprived is not a good idea for any of us) and 2) thunderstorms (it has been raining for weeks, and Saturday night’s forecast was for more thunder. It was accurate and we were glad we were not in a tent with two small children and a puppy last night….)

Anyway– the campground (on Saylorville Lake) is only about 30 mins. from home, which made it easy to go on Friday after school/ work and still have time to pitch the tent and roast hotdogs and S’mores before bed. We accomplished all of those things!

But, it being just about the longest day of the year, dark didn’t really come until after 9 and the girls didn’t fall asleep until about 10. Surprisingly enough, given all the rain we’ve had, there really weren’t any bugs to speak of.

The campground was pretty much full and the sites are fairly close together. A communal experience, to be sure.

We got up in the morning, ate breakfast (including Starbucks’ new instant coffee– yum) took a walk around the campground, and then made our way down through an unofficial path to the lake’s edge.

We found a spot where we could fish and set up chairs there. It was a really bad fishing spot, actually. First of all, with all the rain, the lake is really high. So water’s edge really means we are still on the banks with grass and plants under the shallow water. Second, The overhanging trees were tough to cast around, as well. But we weren’t thinking we’d actually catch anything, we just thought the girls would like the experience of casting and watching the bobber… with their new Barbie and Princess (of course) fishing poles. When we were at Bass Pro last weekend to finish buying supplies (including the fishing poles), they were having a kids’ fishing workshop and taught the girls to cast. So they were very excited to try the real thing.

We stayed down by the water for a couple of hours– the girls played with rocks and stumps, mostly. Atticus took a nap under a bush.

We came back to our site, had lunch, took down the tent, packed up, and went for a walk on a bike trail in the park.

We got home at about 1:30 on Saturday, took showers, and the girls slept for almost 3 hours! It was a really fun time.

We have another weekend in July booked at a different campground on Saylorville Lake. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates!

Also…
we are late in posting pictures from J’s 4th birthday.

On her actual birthday, we had dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack… a favorite spot for its playground and kids’ desserts.

We had her party last weekend at the place where E takes gymnastics. She had a small gymnastics party with a My Little Pony cake and everyone had a nice time!

We were glad that Steve, Jacqueline, and the boys (including new baby P) came over from Iowa City for the party and to spend the night…. Steve had just finished his PhD Comprehensive Exams the day before! Congratulations!